Ori Heffetz on the tradeoffs between data privacy and data accuracy

Ori Heffetz has been working with computer scientists to apply traditional economic tools to the management of data, asking economic questions about the optimal level of data “noise” to use in private and public settings. Evaluating the tradeoffs in each setting, Heffetz and his co-authors study the reactions in individuals to increases and decreases in the level of data privacy offered to them and evaluate the costs and benefits in terms of social impact. These findings help the authors to advise government and industry on how to better manage the sensitive data they collect.